


Snow White and the Super Soldier

by GiannaQueenofBelgium



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: 1940's, AU, Angst, Board Games, Daddy Issues, Death, EIEIOOO, F/M, Fluff, Howard Stark - Freeform, It has Peggy, Love me insolent beasts, Modeling, Natasha and Clint are so cute, Old McClint had a farm, Peggy Carter - Freeform, Peggy Carter is a boss, Pepper is so jelly, Photographs, SHIELD, SHIELD agents - Freeform, Science Bros, Snow White - Freeform, Steve/Oc - Freeform, Steve/Original Character, Super Soldier, Time Travel, bored of games, cryogentic freezing, cute crushes - Freeform, haha - Freeform, hahaha, i'm so punny, kinda not really, no smut ya nasties, pain from everyone IS SERIOUSLY DEAD MY GAWSH, read it, rewritten, science bros to the MAX WOOP WOOP
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-03-12
Updated: 2016-03-30
Packaged: 2018-03-17 13:13:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,611
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3530708
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GiannaQueenofBelgium/pseuds/GiannaQueenofBelgium
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>*Rewritten from past work*<br/>Steve has lost everyone he once knew, either to old age or in some cases- dementia. That is until Bucky resurfaces with a metal arm and orders to kill Steve. On the run from a vengeful Hydra he searches for a safe haven, and when he thinks he found a somewhere he can lie low for a while it turns out to be anything but. A frozen coffin from his past life has come back to haunt him, the girl inside shouldn't be here, she shouldn't have to go through the hell he has.<br/>Follow the story of Agent Beverly Johnson of the SSR, her dealings with hereos Peggy Carter and Howard stark and how she ended up very, very out of her time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Introduction

Tony Stark is 73% positive this is the second most stressful moment of his life. Behind only being held in that blasted cave with only a car battery and the thirst for revenge keeping him alive. In the last three days he’s slept a total of forty-five minutes. This was on accident mind you when he made the mistake of resting his forehead on his desk for just a second. Before he knew what was going on Dum-e was spraying the “ice-box” as Tony had dubbed it and getting white foam everywhere. It was not a pleasant awakening. The stupid thing’s censors had been messed up by the protective field the container emanated and misread an energy spike as the heat of a flame. Since then Dum-e had been moved to another sector of Bruce and Tony’s joint lab and threated many times to be dismantled and used for scrap parts.

“You need rest Tony,” Bruce says from his desk across the room. Though he is soft spoken, for the most part, his voice carries well through the lab and Tony hears him easily.

“I can rest when I’m dead. That’s what Dad always said; it seems to have worked out pretty well for him.”

“At least take a little break, eat something other than Dunkin Donuts and McDonald’s, your underground rest will come a whole lot sooner than you want if you keep up that kind of diet.”

“What do you want from me Banner? Sit around and do yoga to clear my mind? Join a co-op and put my hair in dreadlocks and eat organic nuts all day?” Bruce rolls his eyes and goes back to his work, which happens to be writing an algorithm that could potentially pass beyond the energy barrier surrounding the fridge sized coffin. Though an “old friend” had wanted them to figure out what sort of protective shield was around the freezer the two scientists were far more interested in finding out who the girl inside was, though after a couple energy spikes popped the light bulbs above their heads and rained glass down on them the girl took to the back burner.

“It’s starting to give me the creeps,” Tony can’t tear his eyes off of the casket, or at least that is what he presumes it to be. What else could it be? It’s shaped just like one, made to keep a body in perfect condition like super-advanced mummification.  The outside is freezing cold to the touch and tingles go up a person’s spine when they get close to it, they’re never sure if this is because they can see the face of a timeless woman in the window or the energy field messing with the electric signals within the recipient’s brain.

Tony half walks, half stumbles over to the bench where they have the thing lain flat down. He puts his hands on the side, his spine does the weird shiver thing, and he peers into the window. She’s beautiful, smirking it seems, almost laughing at how they can’t even comprehend how she’s protecting her long since dead body. At first Stark thought her little smug expression only added to her personality but now it feels like a taunt.

“It’s finished,” Bruce says and jogs across the room with a little device in his hand, he’s pressing the keypad on it almost furiously- which worries Tony. He approaches slowly and presses a green button on the top. The little machine, about the size of a label maker, is supposed to identify the type of energy used to keep the casket so cold in the 71 degree Fahrenheit lab that fog rolls off its surface. As soon as Bruce is a foot away the little label maker gauge starts buzzing and a whining like there’s no tomorrow before the screen sparks, goes dead, and smoke curls out from the casing sides.

Tony Stark is now 81% positive this is the second most stressful moment in his life.

“What are you?!” He yells and throws a kick, he wanted it to make contact with the ice box but knows better even in his rage, so a metal chair gets the brunt of his anger. When he’s done throwing a temper tantrum and Bruce is taking deep breaths from his side of the lab Tony leaves to “rest”. This means whisky, and lots of it.

 

He’s not sure what to do, he feels like this most of the time actually, though he’d never admit it even to himself. Steve is in the passenger seat of Sam’s truck with Natasha sprawled out in the back seat quietly snoring. Just eleven hours ago he got released from the hospital and they’ve been driving ever since. He reviews what has happened in the last couple of weeks. SHIELD has fallen, it also happens to be mostly run by the people he gave up his life trying to exterminate; his best friend is somehow alive and trying to kill him not to mention he can’t even remember his own name. Nothing seems real, time moves by as it always has but has this dream like quality to it, suddenly a half an hour has gone by and all Steve has been thinking about is Bucky Barnes. How he tried to kill him, how Steve couldn’t bring himself to even stopping Bucky from punching his lights out. He doesn’t know how he ended up on the beach, gasping for air and choking up bits of sand and water, looking around everywhere for his best friend and crying out “Bucky! Bucky! Where are you?!” desperately. He should be dead, his body crushed under scrap metal and his lungs filled with water. This makes the second time he’s fallen out of the sky and somehow made it out alive.

 Thankfully he has two people on his side, he can trust them and is more grateful for that than anything else. He also happens to be homeless, which is exactly why the three are traveling to New York. Last time he saw Tony Stark the man was joking about making Stark Tower into an Avenger’s “secret club house” with a level for each one of the members to have as their own flat. Steve is hoping he wasn’t just teasing and that there may be safe refuge in the big ugly tower.

They drove through the night and the sun is just now breaching the horizon and slicing the morning chill with warm crepuscular rays. Steve wearily watches the brilliant hues of first light and is continuously playing the image of Bucky over and over in his head. If he could have just jumped forward, reached out somehow and grabbed his hand all those years ago this would have never happened. If he could have done something-

“You in the mood for IHop? Cus you know what? I am.” It is almost as if Sam can see the dark thoughts filtering through Steve’s mind like they’re being projected out of Cap’s eyeballs and onto the dashboard. Even though Stark Tower is within sight now, wow they have been driving for a long time Steve thinks, Sam pulls off the freeway and onto a little side road the GPS claims will bring them closer to cheap coffee and comfort food.

“You want waffles Nat?” Steve turns around in his spot, the seat belt biting into his shoulder, and pats her leg. As soon as he does it he flinches away expecting a startled assassin to start choking him. Instead she jolts and sits up, muttering under her breath for someone named “Lucky” to stop waking her up.

“Lucky? Who’s that, old boyfriend of yours?” Sam teases with a smug grin slapped on his face. Natasha rolls her eyes and pulls some strands of hair out of her mouth. She internally complains that no matter how still she sleeps, how careful she is to tie back or braid her hair out of the way some of it always ends up in her mouth.

“Shut up Wilson,” She mumbles and pulls her seatbelt back on and looks out the window with squinted eyes. “Slept for a good while,” The assassin comments as they pull into the breakfast restaurant. There are people flocking to it even now in the early parts of the day. The three leave the truck, stretching sore and cramped limbs, well not Steve that is- thankfully he doesn’t get muscle cramps when he sits still for too long. This earns him some aggravated looks from his companions.

“I am getting me some pancakes, good ones with blueberry syrup, and a whole load of butter too.” Falcon licks his lips and practically runs into into the restaurant. Steve gets French toast with maple syrup and three eggs whereas Natasha gets waffles with each little pocket overflowing with strawberry jam and powdered sugar. It is surprising to the men just how many sugary toppings she adds, they expected the assassin to be wary of such unwholesome foods. In Nat’s mind she is compensating for the total crap-storm that she’s experiences in the last couple of weeks. The three eat silently and discreetly watch the entrances and exits. Even now there are mercenaries and the like after them, sent by begrudging Hydra seeking revenge and to behead the people who brought them down when they were at their highest. The actions of Samuel Wilson, Natasha Romanoff, and Steven Rogers will not be soon forgotten.

“So you really think the multibillionaire Tony Stark is just gonna let us stay with him until this all blows over?” Sam asks and cuts a big chunk out of his buttermilk pancake tower that is piping hot and absolutely dripping with butter.

“Hope so,” Steve shrugs and takes a drink of his coffee. It is weak, nothing like how he usually takes it, but good enough to keep him awake for another couple hours which is all he truly needs it for. Sam grins with plump cheeks stuffed with pancakes and shakes his head.

“Gosh man, I just can’t believe you two are buddies with THE Tony Stark,” he says after washing the pancakes down with some apple juice. He well knows who the Avengers are and feels privileged that Captain-freaking-America and Black Widow needed his help; that they came to him when they needed someone to lean on. Through almost being killed because of it he is still tickled pink. He is bummed out that his wings took a beating and are long gone, but maybe if Tony Stark is as cool of a dude as the news reports and tabloids often say he is- he just might make Sam a new pair. With some awesome modifications he hopes.

After breakfast the three load back into the truck, awake and all feeling a little better with something in their stomachs, ready to take on the day. Or so they presume. What lies in wait for them at Stark Tower is something no one bet on happening and may be just enough to send Steve over the edge.

“Da-da-da, da-da-da, and I would walk five hundred miles and I would walk five hundred more,” Natasha sings to herself while watching the other cars go by. She’s silently playing “Hot or Not” with the other drivers who pass them by. Mostly it has been all “nots” who have come in close proximity but her eyes have had the privilege of spotting a couple of eye candy drivers. Since she started going on missions where there was a lot of driving involved and not a whole lot of entertainment she’s been spying on the other people on the road, partly to keep her from going insane and partly to keep herself alive from anyone who could be tracking them. When she went on missions with Clint however she never played Hot or Not, just watched out of the corner of her eyes at the other people and paid no attention to their looks. She missed him quite a lot right now and hoped he had enough sense to stay hidden at his farm for a little while longer while everything blew over. Though she had thought about saying the three could go to his place it was best to see if she and Clint could keep their little secret that way for a bit longer.

“Stark ho!” Sam says as they pull onto the road that leads directly to the tower and near closer. Sam parks his truck on the curb and throws a couple bucks into the meter while Natasha and Steve grab the suitcases from the trunk. The group approaches the front entrance and attempt to open the front door.

“Good morning, how may I be of service?” A voice asks from above and they look up towards a speaker and a security camera. “Ah, how nice of you to pay us a visit Mr. Roger and Ms. Romanoff.” JARVIS greets but does not grant them access.

“Whoa dude now that is cool, automatized butler? Ha-ha, he has all the toys!” Sam is fangirling quietly and grinning up at the security camera with his pearly whites. JARVIS feels quite proud.

“We’d like to speak to Tony if at all possible,” Natasha says and strains to look directly up at the camera; it pans down and stares back. It takes JARVIS a moment to respond.

“Miss Potts will be with you three shortly, please wait in the entrance lounge until she arrives. Thank you,” He says and the front doors buzz and click as they unlock and grant the trio sanctuary. As they pass the threshold it’s as if a weight is lifted off their shoulders for Stark Tower, although not completely impenetrable, is much safer than the open highway and IHop.

The waiting room is spacious and well decorated, the walls are reflective metal and the flooring is the most expensive bamboo man can buy. An elevator is across the lounge and the little viewing screen just above it tells them that Pepper is on her way down, only twenty two more floors to go and                she’ll be here. Hopefully telling them that there are beds ready and Tony just can’t wait to reconnected with his long lost besties and make a new friend as well.

A couple minutes later the elevator doors open silently and Pepper greets the group with a tepid smile, she as well has gone through a lot with the new arrival in a casket. Paper work for the transportation of the thing from Germany to the United States had somehow tripled after she marked down some wrong information and with Tony not sleeping at all she feels ready to pop at the seams. Natasha picks up on this instantly, for back in the Red Room not only was she trained to kill but taught how to read people better than their closest companions.

“What’s wrong?” She directly asks and makes Pepper stop in her tracks and look to the ground. Potts takes a very deep, very shaky breath before putting her hands on her hips and slowly raising her head to look at them.

“It’s Tony, I’m pretty sure he’s lost his mind. Bruce has been trying to get him to take a break from the project but he barely sleeps and hardly eats and I’m just going to lose my mind if he keeps it up.” Her words fly from her mouth like she’s been playing chubby bunny with her emotions and suddenly, after she’s finally verbalized it, Pepper feels a whole lot better. Now, a little embarrassed with her outburst, she straightens her back and swipes her hands over imagined wrinkles on her pencil skirt and puts on a smile.

“But that is not important right now, what is important is why you three are here. And I don’t think I’ve made your acquaintance yet sir,” She extends her hand out to a semi-shocked Sam Wilson. He shakes her hand and they trade introductions. She looks to the team leader, Steve, for answers.

“We need a place to hide for a little bit; I’m guessing you’ve been staying caught up on the news about Washington.” She simply nods and leads the way into the elevator.

“Miss Romanoff, Captain Rogers, Mr. Wilson, Please follow me and we can find your levels.” So he wasn’t kidding, Steve thinks as the doors shut and they soar upwards. First Natasha is dropped off  at a level with décor in varying shades of red and black; she loves it. Her bedspread has the Black Widow hourglass printed on it and is edged with little red flowers on the boarders. As she brushes her fingers across the 1,000 count Egyptian sheets and thinks about how she could get used to this Steve is entering his own red, white and blue suite. He smirks and chuckles, looking side to side at the almost ostentatious decorations. He has his own little kitchen and hanging above the stove is a replica of his shield. Since he’s lost his own, unlike the Captain it was laying on the bottom of the lake he managed to escape. Maybe Stark could help him find it…

“No way! Really?!” Sam grins and claps his hands together; Pepper is beaming at his enthusiasm.

“Only the very best for Mister Stark’s guests,” She says and leads him into the guest bedroom. Even though it is significantly smaller than Nat and Steve’s rooms it is still an extraordinary place to stay. Sam dances around and taps the walls as he wanders about.

“You will find a kitchenette to your left, bedroom straight ahead with attached bath, and to the right is the balcony with added fire pit.” Sam pokes his head into the bedroom and just about melts at the sight of the bed, after driving for ten hours straight a very long nap is in order.

“If you’d excuse me Miss Potts, but I hear a very special someone calling my name,” He nods his head towards the king sized abode and grins at her. “Thank you for this; I really didn’t know what would be waiting here for us. Nice to know we got people watching our backs,” His voice is soft and sincere and after what Pepper has been putting up with his few kind words are the elixir she needs.

“We are happy to be here, and if you need anything at all- please ask JARVIS,” With that she takes her leave and he takes off his pants because who in their right mind takes a nap in dusty blue jeans? He snuggles into the bed, lays flat for a moment with a huge exhale and then wriggles around like a worm making its cocoon. Sam gathers up all the blankets and wraps himself up until the soldier is nothing but a happy little burrito.

While Sam and Steve are napping Natasha stares out at the New York horizon and lets her tight muscles relax for the first time since Fury called her into action. When she slips into the huge porcelain tub, that of course is jet black in coloration, there is not a care in her mind.

 

It is late in the evening when everyone assembles on the top floor of Stark tower, the trio from Washington are relaxed and calmed and Tony has sobered up significantly. Hugs and the like are exchanged, Tony and Bruce are introduced to the newest member of their rag-tag team, and right away Tony starts throwing around bird puns. Everyone is seated in the conversation pit with a flickering fire in front of them when the conversation turns serious.

“Seems you missed something quite big when you were digging through SHIELD’s dirty laundry Tony,” Natasha points out and kicks her feet up on the coffee table. Tony rolls his eyes and wants to hold his pounding head in his hands.

“Yeah, seemingly.” Is all he can say. “I’m glad you guys made it out alive, I wasn’t sure what to do really. Bruce here said that if we charged into it weaponless we’d end up as bug splats on the concrete. Well, I’d be the splat and he be the swatter that is.” Bruce takes a sip from his ice water. Steve is more than a little uncomfortable, the news that Bucky is out and about- not to mention probably looking to kill him, lingers on his tongue and is threatening to push past his gritted teeth.

“B-“ The first letter stumbles out.”

“Huh?” Tony looks over at him with a cocked head. Natasha stares too, wanting to say it for him but she knows it isn’t her news to give.

“Bucky, he’s- he’s alive.” Tony frowns and has to wrack his brains to figure out who Bucky is. “But, he isn’t what he was back then, he’s got a metal arm now. He’s out to kill me now.”

“Dear god,” Bruce says just decibels above a whisper. Pepper’s eyes are round and she looks from Tony to Steve and back again.

“W-what?” Someone says but Steve isn’t sure who, all he can hear is Bucky’s voice, void of everything it once was.

“Fought him on one of the helicarriers, just about took me out. Don’t know what happened in the end, I remember falling through the sky and hitting the water. After that I woke up on the shore. Oh, by the way my shield is at the bottom of that lake. You think you could like, fish it out for me?” He turns his depressed stare from the flames and to his friend who looks at him dumbly. He nods. It won’t be that hard to find it if no one has beaten them to it, some ground penetrating radar is all they really need.

“So, what have you guys been up to?” Natasha asks breaking the heavy silence that has suddenly engulfed the group.

“Science bros have been reunited,” Pride emanates from Tony’s voice.

“Science b-“

“Don’t ask,” Bruce interrupts with a pained expression. “An old friend has dropped off a little project for Stark and I to figure out.”

“Who left it?” Sam asks.

“Fury, he didn’t even show up in person- just gave up a little Skype call and said to keep the package he was sending safe. Oh, he also mentioned that you guys might be showing up. I didn’t really know if that was true or not, glad to see he was right,” Tony says and takes a drink of his vodka before Pepper confiscate it and puts it out of his reach.

“What is it?”

“A girl,” Bruce and Tony answer in unison. Everyone but Pepper frowns in confusion. Natasha leans forward on her knees and gives them a steely look.

“Fury mailed you a girl?”

“In a box, we think she’s dead. Can’t be sure though, the thing she’s stored in won’t let any of our tech even get close to it. We only know a couple things, one: it is very cold, two: it has been that way for a very long time, three: the stupid thing is driving me nuts and I’m thinking of throwing it in the ocean.” Tony starts to lean over to where his vodka has been placed. Even though he is reaching his breaking point even in his madness he would never risk losing the fantastic tech the machine has to offer by sending it into the murky depths.

“Four:” Bruce begins “we’re not throwing it in the ocean because the energy source has potential usage for another form of clean energy.”

“Oh yeah, that too.” Stark shrugs.

“Can we see it? Or is dangerous? I mean it sounds pretty cool.” Sam asks and lifts a beer to his lips.

“Sure, I mean you guys can always help me heave it over the edge of the tower.” Stark gets up and leads the way to the lab just a level below them.

“Welcome to wonder land!” Most of the lab equipment has been pushed to the sides of the walls in the first room where the coffin lays. The spikes in energy has already destroyed a couple of Tony’s prototypes and neither he or Bruce are about to risk losing more data. In the perfect center of the room there lies Tony’s current torment, icy cold air flows off its edges and fog rolls off the surface and onto the floor where it dissipates into nothingness.

“Can someone say super creepy?” Sam whispers as they enter the lab. Steve’s eyebrows are knit tight together and his fists are clenched. There is something about the ice box that is unnervingly familiar yet he can’t place where he’s seen it before. He pushes past the others with long strides and then stops a couple feet away, he can see the frosty porthole shaped viewing window but not the woman within. A chill climbs up the vertebra of his spine and leave his whole body cold. Like mist receding from around the form of a long lost figure the memories of the contraption come back to him, first in scattered fragments before pulling themselves into coherent shapes. Everyone else in the room feels the tension he is pulsating with and stay a couple yards behind him; something in the air tells them that he needs space. The need to solidify his mental claims pulls his cemented feet forward, be it very slowly, and he finds himself staring directly into the coffin’s window. He knows what the machine is, and that is beyond what he’s ever imagined to be possible, but what lays within he doesn’t want to exist. This is so wrong.

“I call her Snow White,” Tony says and feels rather proud of the fitting name for the girl within. Hair darker than pitch is perfectly curled, the ringlets coated in a fragile layer of frost, her lips are oxblood red and perfectly filled in with her favorite lipstick, and her shut eyes are rimmed with dark and thick eyelashes. Steve takes one step backwards and then suddenly several more.

“No,” He says and bumps into the edge of Bruce’s desk.

“What?” Pepper asks.

“This shouldn’t be happening, not to her.”

“Capsicle what is it?” Tony puts his hands on his hips, he hates not knowing what is going on, not knowing what to do. No one expected such a violent reaction from the Captain, maybe a little disturbed about the bubble girl but nothing more. Natasha watches his eyes and sees an expression she readily computes- that of living out one’s worst nightmare. She’s had her fair share of that. Steve turns to them, the blood has drained from his face and it looks like he might lose it, or maybe cry, he could even scream and that wouldn’t be a surprising response. But what he says is but a whisper.

“She shouldn’t be here, my word, she shouldn’t have to go through what I have.” 

 

 


	2. Chapter 1: Beverly Johnson

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An introduction to the character Beverly Johnson, a young woman living in Brooklyn, New York. She's working as a waitress at a local shop, living a life unassuming and uninteresting, so how exactly does she end up in 2016 New York City in a cold coffin?  
> Only time will tell.
> 
> (My compute broke and this laptop's word processer doesn't have spell check so please excuse my infinite mistakes.)

Chapter One: Beverly Johnson

I was born in 1923 to my bright eyed, young parents Gordon and Ellie Jones. Mama used to tell me when I was little, all the way up to my early twenties, that the day I came into the world was the happiest day of her and Daddy’s lives. Even though they were fresh out of high school and had only been married but four months they were ready and willing to have their first child. For the first five years of my life we moved all around the country, from Iowa to Kansas then back again when my Grandma got real sick and we had to take care of her until she died when I was three, then to California, after that our little family finally settled in Brooklyn, New York. That same year my little sister Minnie was born at the very tiny weight of 4 pounds and 6 ounces. The Doctor told us that she probably wouldn’t live long, but they said that about me too when I was born because I wouldn’t cry and I’m still kicking.

It took time and a whole load of love to get Minnie to put on weight, but once she did she was packing it on like there was no tomorrow. As a toddler she was always chubby, with big squishy cheeks that were always red and pushed back from a large smile. As she got older she didn’t get very tall, by the time she was twelve she was just a little under five foot, and when I got my fateful job working for a multi-millionaire she was fourteen, just five foot two and had thinned out quite a bit. She was pretty as a pixie.

We’d never been a well off family, scrambling to find half of what we owed for rent was a normal Wednesday and when Minnie got real sick when she was nine our debt became much harder to handle. In the end she was alright but our bank account was far from okay. At the age of fifteen I had to take up my first job working as a dishwasher at a downtown restaurant. Even that didn’t help much and my academic grades suffered. At sixteen I dropped out of high school and started working full time. Daddy always said that our big break was just waiting’ around the corner, tapping its toes impatiently as we crawled around blindly trying to find it. Daddy never thought his silly description would be so dead accurate.

It was six on a Tuesday, I was getting off work and walking to Mrs. Avery’s house, she gave chores for Minnie to do after school and in return for her hard work Minnie got her own little salary. I’d been slaving away over a hot stove at the local diner for the last ten hours, working for a measly wage and promising myself I’d get a better job after my next check. I’d been doing that for seven months.

The door opened a couple seconds after I finished rapping my knuckles raw on the white door peeling its paint on the edges. Mrs. Avery stood in the doorway, her usually tight top bun a frizzled mess and her eyes rabid as a dog’s.

"Mrs. Ave-"

"Here! Take her!" Minnie appeared behind her and was shoved into my arms. "You don’t ever come back into my house you filthy little thief!" Mrs. Avery bent down on her weak knees and shoved her big ole’ beak of a nose into Minnie’s face, hissing at her. I pulled my little sister back away from the snake and the woman slowly raised herself up, never taking her rat like eyes off Minnie. She turned to me and narrowed those black little beads at me.

"Excuse me, I’d like an explanation."

"An explanation? Well your little sneak of a sister has been taking my money for over a month now. I’d always suspected something, but she never took much, just some change out of my savings jar every couple of days. So one night I dumped it all out and counted every. Single. Penny." She bent back down towards Minnie with her lip pulled back like some crazed animal. I push Minnie back further behind me and stepped in front of Mrs. Avery, waiting to hear the rest of her story. She stood back up and glared at me. "Over the next week and a half I lost a whole four dollars in change. Didn’t think I’d catch you, did you? Little rat." My little sister dug her hands into the folds of my skirt and pressed her face into my back, not daring to look at her employer.

"Please, I’m sure that we can come to some sort of agreement-"

"Yes, you’re quite right Beverly, let’s be diplomatic about this." I straighten up, pushed my shoulders back and put on a smile.

"Exactly," I agreed.

"You pay me back the fifteen dollars she stole, along with 30% interest per week that she took from me, which was four, and I won’t call the police." The air went still and cold. _Fifteen dollars?_ There was no way we would ever have enough money to pay back Mrs. Avery, every penny we had went towards the most basic of necessities, unless Minnie had kept every scrap of that money… and interest?! My family could barely pay rent at the end of the month much less pay 30% interest on money that had been disappearing for a month. My fake smile dropped and my jaw tightened as my teeth ground against one another.

"Thirty percent interest?" This was as close to blackmail as a little old lady who taught piano to children on Tuesday nights could get. Behind me Minnie whimpered. "That’s 18 dollars Mrs. Avery, you want me to pay thirty three dollars all together because my little sister was dumb enough to take some of your dusty old coins?" She jutted her nose high in the air.

"And an additional five dollars for every week you’re late Beverly. This is the best offer you’ll be getting, trust me child, you don’t want to anger me further." I bit back the harsh words clawing at my throat and nodded my head.

"Of course, I’ll be back tomorrow with your money, now if you’ll excuse us." She smiled, in a way that would make even the Devil himself shiver, and slammed her front door on me. I cringed and stood still for a moment, Minnie shivering behind me before I turned on her. I grabbed her by the shoulder, pinching her as I dragged Minnie down the porch steps.

"What were you thinking?! I never knew you could be so stupid!" I whispered yelled at her and she wouldn’t meet my eyes. "Do you know how disappointed Mom and Daddy will be? My word they’ll be ruined." She tried to tug away from me, her little hands clawing at my arm. I let go of her and bent down on the sidewalk until we were eye to eye.

"I just wanted-"

"That doesn’t matter anymore Minnie! Any excuse you have won’t be good enough. You better have saved every blasted penny." She went silent and dropped her head. My heart dropped into my stomach. "No- no you didn’t spend it."

"I," she fell silent, sighing with the weight of the world on her back. Oh how I wanted to hit her, to yell bloody murder, to make her feel as bad and scared as I did. But I knew she already did. Exhaustion swept over me without warning, I teetered on my unbalanced feet for a moment before sitting down in the middle of the sidewalk. I brought my knees up to my chest and gathered my dress in front of my legs before resting my head atop my knees.

"We don’t have thirty-three dollars Minnie," I said quietly, deflated, there was no fight in me. Just, emptiness. We wouldn’t be able to make the money up by tomorrow, or by the end of the week, and Mrs. Avery would just keep adding on more to our debt to her. "I don’t know what to do."

"I-I’m so, so sorry Bev," She howled, hiccupping on her words and heaving her little chest up and down so hard I thought one of her ribs might crack under the pressure. I lifted my head and looked up at her, crying there in the middle of the walk with tears dripping down her cheeks.

"There’s no use crying, now let’s go try to sell back whatever it was that you bought. If you tell me you’ve eaten whatever it is that you got I might just send you back into that house begging for mercy." She shook her head violently, in answer to if she’d eaten her money or maybe in rejection of going back into that house. I wondered what Mrs. Avery had done to her for those three hours she’d been there waiting for me to off of work.

"I-I got em’ here," She whimpered and pushed a hand deep into her dress pocket. One little piece of paper came back with her. Minnie handed it to me and I took it from her gingerly. This had cost her fifteen dollars? Some lousy little piece of-

"A bond." I said flatly. "What sort of little girl needs to buy a bond?" It was almost funny. She’d risked her neck to buy some stupid fifteen dollar bond for the US Army.

"Look at the back," She whispered and I turned the certificate over.

"No, no you didn’t." I almost crumpled the paper in my hand.

It wasn’t just any bond for supporting our brave troops; no this was _the bond_ , the little "donation" that bought you entry into one of Captain America’s shows. The government had gotten Captain Rogers famous enough that they could trick the general public into donating to the army just so they could get a peep of his blonde hair and brilliant blue eyes. This was not only in support of the troops, but it was a ticket to Cap’s show. She’s blown fifteen dollars to get into his stupid show.

"I can’t believe you."

"My plan was to pay her back before she noticed the coins were gone."

"Minnie someone doesn’t just not notice fifteen dollars in change disappearing out of their drawers," I groaned and shook my head, flinging it up towards the blue sky. "I can’t believe you’d be so selfish as to steal from Mrs. Avery to get into one of his performances."

"It wasn’t for me," I lowered my head and looked into her big brown eyes ringed with red. "You’d always talked about how you fancy him, you work so hard Bev, just wanted to do something nice for you." She must have overhead me with my friends, talking about our imaginary sweethearts. We stared at one another for a long while before I turned and we kept walking home.

"What are we going to tell them?" She asked as we crossed into our neighborhood and into the alley I always took as a shortcut. We dodged swirling rainbow puddles with oil skimming their surfaces. A cat popped its head out of a nearby trashcan, a fish head sticking out of its mouth as it darted away into the darkness behind a dumpster. We exited out onto the sidewalk just a half block from our apartment.

"Nothing," I say and spot Mom. She was taking laundry off of the line and putting it into our only laundry basket. She turned towards us and frowned, immediately noticing how tightly I held Minnie’s hand, I let it slip from my grip and hold my arms behind my back. I shove the bond into my dress pocket and hope for a quick death.

"What’s wrong?" She asks me and looks between her daughters. I smile and shake my head, tears are already biting at my eyes and I’ve never been good at keeping my emotions unreadable. I am however good at misdirecting what has caused said emotions.

"Oh no, Beverly what is it?" Mother’s intuition is pretty annoying right now.

"I, it’s about work." Minnie looks about as stiff as a board and she won’t make eye contact with either of us. "This morning a truck with new plates came in and I was helping to unload them but I-I dropped this box of china." Mom’s gentle hands found my shoulders and pulled me close.

"Oh, it’s not your fault, everyone makes mistakes Bev."

"I-I need to pay them back," Now she too begins to turn statuesque.

"How much?" Oh how I don’t want to tell her.

"Thirty three dollars."

"What?!" She yells, letting go of my shoulders and taking a few steps back, her eyes wide and frightened. I nod my head and can’t help but start to cry. "How in the world can a box of china cost thirty three dollars. Oh Bev you should have been more careful, you know we can’t afford to make mistakes like this." I bend my head away from her piercing eyes and wipe tears off my cheeks. It would have been easy to throw Minnie under the bus, but what she did was childishly stupid, she doesn’t need a lecture- she already knows what she did was wrong. I doubt she’ll do anything like this again. And well, if she does, I’m not going to be taking the blame a second time.

"I-I’m going to work some extra shifts and there is the money I have saved for a new dress, I just need a loan from you and Daddy." Mom shakes her head and puts her hands over her eyes, its easy tell we’ve caused a stress headache. My chest shakes and I ball my hands at my side, trying my hardest not to cry, I need to know if they can loan us any money, I need to stay focused. Crying won’t be helping anybody.

"Oh Bev," She whimpers with a sharp edge in her cry. "I’ll have to talk with Daddy after supper. We’re already two weeks late with our rent, and when I tried to make supper today the stove wouldn’t turn on." She digs her palms deep into her eyes sockets before hanging her head. Minnie is quietly sobbing next to me and I pinch her just as she’s about to say something. I’ve already lied, which is bad enough, but I’m not going to let her complicate this even more.

After a cold supper is whisked away Mom and Daddy go into their room and shut the door. Minnie and I stare numbly at each other from across the dinner table. They don’t yell. They never do. Yet the cold energy from their discussion seeps out from under the door and wraps around our spines, threatening to snap us in half. After a couple more minutes I can handle it anymore and go to the telephone positioned on the wall near the kitchenette.

I pick up the earpiece off the cradle and ask the operator for the Smith’s diner. I hear the sounds of her connecting me up, the ringing of the diner’s phone, and then Mrs. Smith’s raspy voice.

"Hello?" she asks and cough directly into the mouthpiece.

"Hello, Mrs. Smith?" I already know its her but my anxiety has got me jumpy and doubting myself.

"Speaking."

"This is Beverly Johnson. I’m calling to see if I could pick up some shifts or extra work around the diner."

"Well," She pauses to hack again. "If you need more hours you can stay late this weekend and help clean dishes, one of our washers is getting married and needs three days off for his honeymoon."

"Is there any extra work in the morning?"

"Goodness girl, you want to work yourself to the bone?"

"If need be, and currently it does." She sighs and clears her throat.

"Come in at five tomorrow morning and help Richard and I unload supplies. Then you can do your normal shift and if at the end of the day you feel like you need more to do, and we have anything for you, you can stay a while longer." I breath out deeply in a moment of relief and thank her. She hangs up before I can say goodbye and I gently place the mouthpiece back onto its cradle.

Mom and Daddy come out of their bedroom just as I’m finishing up the dishes and while Minnie is nervously sweeping the floor for the fourth time.

"Daddy is gonna take out a loan from his brother so you can pay your debt Beverly," Mom says and I nod, putting away the last plate into the tiny cupboard above the sink.

"You must never do anything like this again. Accidents do happen, I’m not trying to say they don’t, but there is much that can be done to avoid them. And you must do all that you can to avoid them." Daddy says in his harshest tone. I nod and wipe away a stray tear off my cheek. Minnie stands in the farthest corner of the room from us and just stares at the ground.

"Yes Daddy," I whimper.

Minnie and I go to bed early that night. We lay in our shared bed in the broom closet of a bedroom and I watch the sky turn dark through the slit thin opening between the curtains. My dress is folded neatly on the clean rug next to the bed. I reach a hand out from under the covers and fish out the bond from inside the pocket.

Only the most harsh details and lettering can be seen against the white paper in the dim room. I can see the cartoon outline of the Captain's Figure on the back, and the lettering of "BOND" at the top of the paper. For a while I just stare at it, amazed at how much trouble such a little thing can cause. Eventually it is refolded and tucked away and I turn on my side towards Minnie, wrapping an arm around her sleeping form. She might be a trouble maker, but I love her, and as much of a pain she's being I can help but swell with pride. The little brat wasn't looking out for her own interests, she bought the dumb bond for me.

I sigh and kiss the top of her head, hoping Mrs. Avery doesn't decide to call the police or increase the interest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading :) Sorry updates are short and far apart, I have all the common excuses (work, school, business, etc) so thank you for being patcient.

**Author's Note:**

> This is a rewritten version of a previous work I made with the same title. This will jump back and forth between the present and Beverly's past, so if you don't enjoy that format I wouldn't recommend reading this. But thank you if you do continue to support this work and my other stories,  
> Much love!


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